Plan for more data-sharing to deter fraud

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Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office minister, is drawing up new guidance to ensure that Whitehall departments can share hundreds of databasesDavid Jones/PA

Jill ShermanWhitehall Editor

Published at 12:01AM, August 5 2014

Higher rates of fraud could be detected and public services more easily
tailored to need if data is shared more widely across Whitehall, officials
said yesterday.

Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office minister, is drawing up new guidance to
ensure that Whitehall departments can share hundreds of databases used by
schools, councils, police and civil servants. The proposals, now out to
consultation, are designed to ensure that benefit data from the Department
for Work and Pensions is more closely matched with information from the Home
Office and the police, including criminal records, passports and driving
licences.